Will his UK ban kill Kanye West's ‘comeback’?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Kanye West’s history of antisemitic behaviour caught up with him this week. The UK banned him from visiting; preventing his recently-announced performance at the Wireless festival later this summer. His appearances in the UK are part of his ‘comeback’ tour for his new album, with performances scheduled in multiple countries this year.
Kanye has apologised for his actions, which include releasing a song glorifying Hitler and selling t-shirts with swastikas, and blamed his bipolar diagnosis. With rising levels of global antisemitism, his appearances have become increasingly controversial. But despite his UK ban Kanye is selling out shows in US stadiums. So will Kanye West be able to make a comeback?
Producer: Viv Jones, Lucy Pawle, Valerio Esposito, Xandra Ellin Digital producer: Matt Pintus Executive producer: James Shield Editor: China Collins
(Photo: Kanye West in North Charleston, South Carolina, US, 19 July, 2020. Credit: Randall Hill/Reuters)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A warning that this episode features discussions of racist, anti-Semitic and misogynistic language. |
| 0:13.3 | Please take care while listening. |
| 0:16.2 | Kanye West has been banned from performing in the UK, a decision that's dividing people on both sides of |
| 0:23.4 | the Atlantic. The artist was due to headline three nights of a London festival this summer |
| 0:29.5 | until the British government intervened and revoked his visa, citing a history of extreme |
| 0:35.6 | anti-Semitic comments and behaviour and saying, quote, |
| 0:39.1 | his presence in the UK would not be conducive to the public good. |
| 0:45.0 | West has apologised for his actions multiple times and blamed his bipolar disorder. |
| 0:51.1 | Some people take him at his word. |
| 0:53.6 | Others feel his apologies are cynical attempts to rescue his career. |
| 0:58.1 | But while he's banned from the UK, Kanye's still selling out shows in US stadiums. |
| 1:04.0 | From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in London. And today on The Global Story, what does |
| 1:09.8 | Kanye West's enduring popularity tell us about |
| 1:13.7 | how mainstream anti-Semitism has become? And if you're big enough, are you uncancellable? |
| 1:23.6 | Well, I'm very pleased to say that to help us decipher this very complex story, we're |
| 1:29.9 | joined from Manchester by Anushka Mutanda Dowarty, the BBC's host of Fame Under Fire podcast, |
| 1:37.5 | and my mentor for all things, pop culture and youth culture, Anushka, I'm hoping you can help me understand what's going on, please. Well, I mean, trying to decipher the world of Kanye. Are we calling him Kanye or are we going to call him Yay? He prefers... Well, that was going to be my first question. What is the correct thing and how are we going to proceed? I think we should go with Kanye because I think that's what most people know him as. Let's go with Kanye. |
| 2:01.7 | So this week we've learned that Kanye West has been banned from visiting the United Kingdom |
| 2:08.0 | in a somewhat dramatic decision by the UK government. |
| 2:12.8 | Tell us what led up to this. |
| 2:14.2 | So a few weeks ago, it was leaked online that Kanye was going to headline a festival |
| 2:20.4 | called Wireless at Wireless Festival in the UK. It's known for having a lot of rap artists that perform |
... |
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